Soccer: He may be the latest in the seemingly endless supply-line of absurdly talented Brazilian footballers. He has already been likened to such as French craftsman Michel Platini, Italian playmaker Giancarlo Antognoni and Croat schemer Zvonimir Boban. Even his most illustrious footballing compatriot, the peerless Pele, has unofficially anointed him King of the Brazilian New Wave.
Ricardo Izeczon Santos Leite (21), otherwise known as Kakà, is the player in question. Note the name well, because before the season is out, whether it be in the AC Milan shirt during their Champions League run or playing for Brazil against the Republic of Ireland next month, this is a player whose sumptuous attacking skills are likely to have you up off your seat, shouting for more.
"This guy is a phenomenon. How could I be jealous of him, I advised the club to buy him."
The speaker is Brazilian World Cup winner Rivaldo and his remarks re Kakà are hardly idle chatter. After all, Kakà's "explosive" start with AC Milan this season just about killed off Rivaldo's faint prospects of staying with the reigning European champions. If Rivaldo now finds himself back in his native land with Brazilian champions Cruzeiro, part of the explanation lies in the fact that he has been superseded by Kakà at Milan.
Yet, on the day after Kakà had turned in a brilliant performance in Milan's 3-1 derby win against Inter last October, the latest new star to hit the San Siro was seen in downtown Milan on a shopping expedition, accompanied by Rivaldo. Relations between the two have always been close, and rather than resenting the new arrival, Rivaldo did his best to help Kakà settle in.
So well has the new boy settled that he has earned a positively embarrassing series of rave reviews from some of the game's most famous names. Pele, for example, delivered an early vote of confidence last October, saying: "I saw him in the derby. He played very, very well. I'm not surprised that he has already made it big in Italian football."
The Italian football community has good reason to be impressed with Kakà. After all, traditional wisdom argues that it takes time to settle down and acclimatise to Serie A. In the past, even such matchless talents as Frenchmen Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini took six months to find their feet and play their best football.
So, how come a 21-year-old Brazilian has pulled it off, seemingly without fuss or hassle? How come a player with whom Milan had intended to wait until the 2004-2005 season before introducing him to Serie A has managed to play his way straight into the first team? For, make no mistake, such is Kakà's all too obvious talent that two months into the new season he had already found space at Milan at the expense of two much more experienced team-mates in Rivaldo and Portugal's Rui Costa.
Last autumn, too, saw him win his ninth cap for Brazil when he lined out in two November World Cup qualifiers, a 1-1 draw with Peru and a 3-3 draw with Uruguay. A goal against Uruguay, incidentally, brought his total for Brazil to four.
His sheer class and the overall strength of both the Milan and the Brazil squads have undoubtedly eased his start-up.
So much so that rather than being intimidated by lining out alongside such as Shevchenko, Inzaghi, Pirlo, Seedorf, Nesta and Maldini at Milan or Ronaldo, Ronaldhino, Emerson et al with Brazil, he immediately gives the impression of having played all his life with them.
Not surprisingly, Milan are positively chortling with delight at the quality of their latest big signing (€9 million from Brazilian club Soa Paolo), with acting president Adriano Galliani saying: "We were tipped off about Kakà three years ago by our man in Brazil . . . We took a look at a video of him and immediately decided to keep a close eye on him. Remember at the time he was only 18, but class like that is special, very few players have it."
Instrumental in persuading Kakà to accept Milan's offer was his compatriot and former Milan player, Leonardo. When Leonardo returned to Soa Paolo from Milan in the summer of 2001, he took the youngster aside and explained to him that Milan were serious about him.
From that moment on, says Galliani, Milan had their man. Even when Chelsea's Russian magnate Roman Abramovich came knocking last summer, Kakà refused to change his mind, declining a higher transfer fee and higher wages in order to stick with Milan. This gesture, says Galliani, is not one that the club will lightly forget.
The interest shown by Chelsea, allied to the consequent speculation on the part of Brazilian media, did have one important knock-on effect. Given the circumstances, Milan and Galliani decided to anticipate Kakà's move to Italy by a year, bringing the lad to Milanello before another of Europe's biggest and best tried to further tempt him. That move now looks more inspired than premature.
Born the son of an engineer father and a maths teacher mother, Kakà does not fit into the Latin American cliche role of poor boy from the favelas. Rather, he comes from a middle-class background where, had he failed as a footballer, he would have little difficulty finding an alternative career. He is, suggests Galliani, mature beyond his years. That maturity, says Galliani, has also helped Kakà settle in quickly in Italy.
Maturity, if not sheer modesty, are the words that come to mind when listening to Kakà himself. Asked recently about all the praise already heaped on his head since his arrival in European football, not to mention the comparisons with illustrious names of the past, he commented quietly: "I'm just Kakà and nothing more. All this popularity is nice and I like it but I know well how things go in football and that, sooner or later, there will be difficult periods too."
One final thought concerns the lad's name itself. Where on earth did "Kakà" come from? It came from younger brother Rodrigo's inability to pronounce his elder brother's name properly. Two months into the season, the new boy's name no longer causes embarrassment. Kakà it is and Kakà it will remain, perhaps for some long time.
